At our house...

The girls take turns baking.  Actually, they take turns baking the GF bread, a weekly job that no one enjoys but has to be done.  Really, we could do it twice a week, but that wouldn't go over well with the bakers, so we just ration our bread eating and make one bread baking stretch as far as we can.  If there's other baking to do, we usually don't have any trouble convincing Allie to do it - whether that's because she has a sweet tooth or really does love to bake, I'm not sure.  At any rate, I rarely have to bake.  So last week when the girls were busy with assignments and didn't have extra time, I took on the task (with some helpers) of making the birthday cakes (which were OK but nothing to get excited about) and some cookies.  The cookies were good.

We used this gingerbread house recipe to make sandwich cookies.  I mixed some chopped up candy canes into white icing - it was supposed to be pretty and seasonal looking, but instead the colours blended and turned the icing pink.  More girly than seasonal, but yummy all the same.

A few more pics from last week, when amongst other things, two birthdays were celebrated: Emily's 12th and Warren's 10th.

Casper (neither ghost nor catechism author, but dog) is so funny.  Here he is, a sentinel enjoying the early morning sun on top of the dirt hill. I took this one through the window since I knew that if I tried to sneak outside he would certainly hear me and come running.

This hill is making its way bit by bit into the house on the kids' clothes. Saves us the cost of having it trucked away, I suppose, though I'm sure the extra costs associated with laundry and having the dirt end up in the septic tank will probably be greater in the end.  But you can't put a price to all the fun the boys have on it day after day. (And yes, they do ride the wagon and tractor down the hill.  It's one of those things that a mother would rather not know about, or knowing, would rather not watch.)

The birthday girl, who loves tea parties and elephants...

After we visited the African Lion Safari several years ago, where they had the very cutest of newborn elephants, whose name was Emily, our Emily was smitten.  What she really wanted for her birthday was a real one. Can you imagine?! 

The birthday boy...

If you know Warren at all, you will have an idea how pleased we were to see him using his head light to read his new book.  Not quite so happy that it was when he was sitting up in bed at 10:50 that night. :-o

A cozy evening of reading... 

Or playing chess with Grandpa...

Crafting some  2D and 3D paper snowflakes...

One of the birthday breakfasts...

So funny because of its typicalness.  Gavin, never actually sitting on his bottom, and Thomas over at the end, never really really sitting on his chair, just perching on the very edge of it.

Then there's this little miss, who is growing up way too fast...

Today she was snuggling on my lap and I asked her what I would do when I didn't have a little girl any more.  She attempted to comfort me with, "Mommy, when we're all gone away you will still have Leah's hamsters." :)

I've begun to mark appointments and events into my 2012 calendar.  It's already filling up.  Just a short time ago, it seems, we began 2011.  How quickly the days go by, and more so, it seems, when we are busy and involved in so many things.  Over the holidays I hope to take another look at our schedule and tweak it a bit.  We need to make time to savour the days, to purposefully plan times of fellowship, fun and creativity.